Steven Strang
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alchemicalrat.bsky.social
Steven Strang
@alchemicalrat.bsky.social
Artist, researcher. Anthropology, experimental archaeology, painting, sculpture, visual communication. Slowed but not entirely stopped by ME/CFS. Ottawa, Canada.
Current bookbinding experiment, based on Renaissance era notebooks with flexible parchment bindings. Using material from a broken drumhead for the bands and cover on this one.
November 24, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Reposted by Steven Strang
This is one of the best explanations I've seen of the impossible math that I do everyday and why my social life is small
#LongCOVID #MECFS
Why I Can’t Just Meet You for Dinner
The Reality of Post-Exertional Malaise
substack.com
November 23, 2025 at 10:00 PM
Reposted by Steven Strang
Today is Doctor Who Day, which honours the day that Doctor Who premiered on the BBC in 1963.
The TARDIS, The Doctor and many other aspects of the show are thanks to its co-creator, Sydney Newman of Toronto.
This is his story.

🧵 1/12
November 23, 2025 at 4:00 PM
Planning a painting, so down to the end of the road to measure a sign…
November 21, 2025 at 8:11 PM
With the cage door open, the canary was #free
#Whistpr
Painting from my Universal Anxiety Protection Suit series.
November 21, 2025 at 2:25 AM
Reposted by Steven Strang
Silent hill
November 20, 2025 at 3:52 PM
Little 13x18cm painting getting started.
There’s something odd going on at this little cabin in the forest, but I’m not sure yet what it is. Painting can be an act of discovery as much as depiction.
November 20, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Reposted by Steven Strang
November 17, 2025 at 3:03 PM
No beef with the LOTR people, the Star Trek people, or any of the others. But the apparent absence of a large Gormenghast fandom has always puzzled me.
November 17, 2025 at 12:00 AM
The Dream Repository is coming along well, trying to avoid overworking it.
November 16, 2025 at 9:39 PM
When I worked at a historic house one of my duties was the morning check on the graveyard before opening. Some haunting, even if just on Friday and Saturday nights, would have been helpful. Not much sympathy for Vicky and Danny here….
Goodnight from Vicky Copfield and Danny Sleight, belatedly deciding that Lockley Cemetery isn’t the best place to express their lust. Goodnight from Winter Fields School, whose phantoms wait in hope that its living boarders will hold another unwise séance. Goodnight from Hookland.
November 15, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Reposted by Steven Strang
Sir Frederick Banting wasn't just the co-discover of insulin.
He was the youngest recipient of the Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine, an accomplished artist, and a decorated war hero.
This is the story of one of the greatest Canadians.

🧵 1/12
November 14, 2025 at 3:01 PM
As we say at my house:
Out of spoons,
No forks left to give,
Only knives left now…
November 13, 2025 at 3:13 PM
Gnome de plume
#gnomevember
November 13, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Snow Cap
November 13, 2025 at 1:45 PM
An old painting for today. Any village blacksmith could remake a sword into a ploughshare, but a tank is a bigger problem. So why not park it as a garden shed planted around with poppies?
November 11, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Reposted by Steven Strang
November 11, 2025 at 12:46 AM
Reposted by Steven Strang
If you see this, post your bird art.
I only have one so here it is -
November 11, 2025 at 12:20 AM
Reposted by Steven Strang
If you see this, post your bird art.
November 11, 2025 at 12:04 AM
If you see this post your bird art
November 10, 2025 at 11:56 PM
Next painting in line is taking form. Working title is “Dream Repository”. Acrylic, 20x25cm.
November 10, 2025 at 9:55 PM
Provisionally finished, will varnish it in a few days once I’m certain.
“In Transit”, 20x25cm, acrylic on modified Masonite panel.
Thanks for the encouragement on earlier versions!
November 10, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Current state. Am happier now with the work I did last night than I was when I laid down the brushes. Sky and water done, and I think the dock and foreground are actually done too. A little tinkering with the person and their suitcase left.
November 8, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Reposted by Steven Strang
As the nights grow darker, colder, you must remember....
November 7, 2025 at 1:33 PM
Well, that panel I depainted with a knife the other day is finally starting to turn into something I’m provisionally content with. Lots more to do yet. A tree to add, perhaps a suitcase and some birds, and something enigmatic…
November 7, 2025 at 2:20 PM